


The Right To Remain Silent

by Nitrobot



Category: Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015)
Genre: Bad Flirting, F/M, Genderswap, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-10
Updated: 2016-04-10
Packaged: 2018-06-01 08:27:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6510487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nitrobot/pseuds/Nitrobot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Officer Strongarm has his servos full when he's dispatched to apprehend a certain red femme caught stealing from a bodyshop warehouse in Protihex.<br/>Sideswipe did it for a good cause of course, to help out her useless sister Sunny before she did something stupid and tried to run from Iacon police force-<br/>Oh, too late.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Right To Remain Silent

**Author's Note:**

> A few weeks ago I got asked about a genderbent Strongswipe fic, and I've finally gotten around to it ~~cause let's face it I'm always a slut for Strongswipe~~
> 
> Prowl and Sunstreaker are also genderswapped here, since I figured the whole alternate universe would be so and not just Strong and Sides.

In the end, it wasn't hard for Strongarm to track her down when she was flashing a paint job brighter than a Praxian night club sign. And when she was dumb enough to run down the only dead end in the street.

Skidding to a stop before the steel wall springing up out of nowhere in the darkness, she already had her servos up in defeat when Strongarm caught up with her. Not even the glare of the officer’s headlights pinning her with its beam seemed to bother her with optics half lidded. She even had the sense to drop the piles of stolen rim plates she'd managed to swipe, kicking them aside when they landed on her peds. “Alright... you caught me, tough guy.” 

She sounded more bored than guilty, like the whole chase over Protihex was just a game she quickly got tired of. Or she was just trying to mask the smirk so obviously twitching at her lips. Either way, Strongarm had a protocol to follow for every bot he caught; mech or femme, high class or low, even those as… appealing as this one looked in the evening gloom.

“Servos behind your helm, ma’am,” he ordered, and the red femme rolled her optics as she complied.

“Only if you cut out the whole “ma’am” thing, dude,” she said wearily, pushing down a laugh at how absurd the word must have sounded to her. 

Strongarm cuffed her wrists first before pulling them over her helm and in front of her, as stiff as regulation required. “State your designation, then,” he said, turning his headlights down just enough to light the way for them. 

“Aren't you supposed to hold the questions until we’re at the station, officer?” the femme asked, and the fledgling smirk finally broke free on her faceplate while Strongarm checked the strength of the cuffs, pulling them taut between her wrists and only moving behind her when he was satisfied they wouldn't snap.

“I guess you're used to this, then.” He’d assumed it straight away, from how she didn't even flinch from the iron clicking shut on her hands or how her EM field barely crackled with nerve nodes going haywire with spark feedback. Re-offenders knew how it all worked, saw getting caught as a minor inconvenience in their lives and knew just how soon they'd be back on the streets. 

Still, she was young. She had a few more stellar cycles to learn better. But the look she threw behind her shoulder at Strongarm made her look like she was planning a thousand more felonies all at once. “Well, usually not with such an… attractive mech doing the job,” she said softly with a very deliberate drag of her optics down Strongarm's frame. 

If he wasn’t doing the exact same to her, he might have managed to hide his blush a little better. “Flattery won't get you into a nicer cell,” he advised after a brief, guilt-sealing cough, spurring her to walk forwards towards the open street.

“But it _has_ got you staring at my aft, huh?” she pointed out, laughing richly and filling the alleyway with the sound. Still trotting onwards, almost skipping in her steps, she angled her helm back to see as much of Strongarm’s reaction as possible, especially with him trying to smother it. “ _Both_ of us are busted now. I'm Sideswipe, by the way, in case you're still wondering.”

Strongarm kept his optics firmly planted ahead from now on, relieved at the flash of red and blue starting to fill the street from one side. “I see the right to remain silent doesn't mean much to you,” was all he could make himself say, before he emerged from the claustrophobic alley and had Prowl approaching to save him from his own embarrassment.

“Good work, cadet,” the superior officer praised, nodding at Strongarm and Sideswipe even as the latter stuck her glossa out at the other femme. The flash of Prowl’s lights managed to hide the red on Strongarm's faceplate, but he knew better than to even think of letting his guard down just yet. 

“Did you get the other one?” he asked, recalling the only glimpse he caught of the golden partner Sideswipe had with her in the warehouse they broke into.

Prowl shook her helm. “She wasn't carrying as much, so she got on the roads before we could catch her. Blaster is going through the traffic cams for her alt mode just now.”

Sideswipe sighed and tipped her helm back, falling limply on the bench that sat on the sidewalk. “That's sis’ for you, always leaving me to do the heavy lifting… she’s convinced strain on the cables cracks her paint job.” Then she blinked, and her faceplate went blank as if she just had a vision from Primus. Then she argued, “Hey, _she_ was the one who wanted half this junk, I was just along for the ride-!”

“If that's so, then you won't mind helping us track her down, will you?” Prowl asked slyly, stopping Sides right in her tracks and leaving her stuttering helplessly. Strongarm would have felt more sorry for her if he wasn't put in the almost same position just a klick ago.

“Well, I… well, she's my _twin_ , I can’t just rat her out like-”

“You just did, sweetie,” Prowl said, and she was on her comm unit before Sides could realise where she messed up in revealing they were twins. “Blaster, we’re looking for an alt mode model LM-50B with yellow paint-”

The officer didn't even need to finish the description, mostly pulled from scanning Sideswipe’s own frame, before Blaster returned results loud enough to leak over the unit. _“Gotta match! Same alt mode, yellow plates and hauling aft down the Duodrive Interstate. Also, terrible radio choice if you ask me.”_

Prowl’s wheels spun idly on their axles as she warmed her engine. “I’m going after her. Strongarm, you stay here and watch this one.”

“You don't want her down at the station?” Strongarm asked with quirked eyeridges. Where Prowl was usually concerned, she was never happy until the perp was behind bars.

“It'll be easier to process if we do them both at the same time, trust me. I won't be long, anyway.” Prowl almost cracked a smile before her T Cog activated and she shifted into her cruiser form, a black and white blur of pealing sirens and gone before Strongarm could even blink. 

Sideswipe, meanwhile, had trouble burying her helm in her hands with cuffs in the way. “Dad’s gonna kill me…” 

It was the common lament of every young bot, one even Strongarm himself had in the past. But Sideswipe muttered it like a true death sentence, not at all like someone who should have been used to trouble by now. Whether or not it was just simple paranoia weighing her voice down, Strongarm sat down beside her. He actually preferred it when she was trying to flirt. 

“I'd worry more about your sister if I was you. She's dealing with both theft _and  
_evading arrest charges right now. Maybe even endangering civilians if she tries anything out there.” He started the reasoning not quite sure where he was planning to go with it, but he would have taken it anywhere that would pull the sadness out of her shaking vocaliser.__

__The mental image of her sister turning the planet into a racetrack against police seemed to cheer Sideswipe up, if only for the split nanoklick she smiled for. “Sunny couldn't even knock over a petrorabbit, let alone someone else on the road. It took her three tries getting her alt mode licence cause she was terrified of scuffing her paint during the tests.” She laughed, and Strongarm couldn't stop himself mirroring it, though barely matching the giddy timbre that ended far too soon. “Still... knowing her, she’ll be pulling out every trick she knows… most of them ones I taught her.”_ _

__“Does that mean she'll try seducing her arresting officer as well?” Strongarm asked, and now Sideswipe tried to dam her laughs from behind her hands as she jammed them against her mouth, handcuff chains buzzing together._ _

__“I thought it was working a little at the time… Strongarm,” she confessed between huffs with a tiny shrug. He blinked in surprise, with the trained urge to correct her and insist on the correct address of ‘officer’, but he made himself skip over that protocol for now. No real need for it when the prisoner was subdued, after all._ _

__“It might’ve worked better if you weren't already in handcuffs,” Strongarm suggested, already regretting the words before they left his mouth when he caught the glint dancing across Sideswipe’s optics, the same one adopted by just about everyone who spent at least half their lives running from someone._ _

__“How about you take them off then, and I can try again?” she advised, wiggling her eyeridges just as ridiculously as her wrists. Strongarm only burst out laughing because no one else would hear him._ _

__“Really? Not even a rookie would fall for that one,” he chided, and Sideswipe dropped the seductress act as soon as it appeared with a rolling shrug of servos going limp._ _

__“I'm desperate, can you blame me?” she asked, and the sincerity wasn’t hidden well enough under her smirk for Strongarm to ignore it. As if he could ignore anything about her at this point, even when he forced himself to focus on the cuffs clamped around her wrists. But sooner or later his gaze would drift upwards, and he'd have to face the fear starting to swallow up her faceplate._ _

__It occurred to him how hard it was to reassure someone you were dragging right up to their own nightmares. “Look, if you're really worried about this, I can... _maybe_ convince them to go easy on you and Sunny. Worst case scenario is you'll get a day in the holding cell, a few more of community service, and that's all.”_ _

__He could only look up when he finished, and the first thing he saw on Sideswipe's face was confusion. It had a strange way of crinkling the plane between her optics, just above the olfactories, and her mouth was a creased pout before she shook her helm clear._ _

__“I'm not worried about jail, I'm used to it. Mostly cause of street racing, like my dad used to do… he didn't care if I got in trouble because of that.” She sighed, fiddled with the digits she could reach with her wrists restrained. “I'm... worried about Sunny, is all. She's younger by a few klicks, and she's never got caught before. Not for anything serious, at least. She’s on the roads because she's panicking, she doesn't know what's gonna happen when she's cornered. I can't even comm her and see if she's alright cause she shut her unit off.”_ _

__The static was rising to choke Sideswipe off, a hard lump of emotional electricity forming in her throat. Strongarm heard and felt it, the scratch and hard fuzz of a distressed EM field. If she was just hiding it before, now it was too strong to hold back._ _

__“Prowl doesn’t want to hurt her, and she won't,” Strongarm said, knowing at least the first part was true. “She can be a little rough, but it’s what comes with experience. Sunny will be okay, though. I'll make sure of it.”_ _

__Sideswipe hung her helm low, neck cables flexing. “How can I trust you on that?” she asked quietly, and Strongarm looked away from the glimmer showing near her hidden optics._ _

__“Because any other officer wouldn't even be talking to you right now,” Strongarm said. “And if they would, all they'd care about is wringing as much evidence out of you as possible.” It wasn't every officer, but it was close enough to some he could name. Sideswipe knew it, and she finally smiled again._ _

__“You've got a point there,” she admitted, nodding and dislodging a few stray coolant tears. Strongarm pushed back the thought of wiping the trails away for her, and replaced it with something to ground him back into his job, the role he had to play if only until Sideswipe was taken in._ _

__“The fact is that you both did something wrong, and you know it,” he stated with a heavy sigh. “But in the end, no one got hurt. And you'll know not to do it again next time.”_ _

__Sideswipe was still nodding, but she slowed and angled her helm towards him. “I might not do it… if I had something else to do instead. Like a date.”_ _

__Strongarm really had to applaud her determination, even for not entirely noble causes. “That _would_ keep you occupied,” he had to vaguely agree, and Sideswipe's grin was spreading like a joyful virus._ _

__“And out of trouble. Most kinds, at least…” She winked, and Strongarm's processor was flooded with the lingering subtext he would have otherwise kept firmly locked away from his conscience. Even when he cleared them all away, after images still burned when he looked at her._ _

__“What do you know? Under all the bad pickup lines, you really are a smooth one, Sideswipe.”_ _

__“And you can’t decide whether you love or hate it,” she said from behind her lidded optics, and somehow her hands had gone from cradling each other to doing the same to his thigh without him noticing- until they breached the field of heat around his codpiece. She wasn't too offended when he brushed the digits away; not nearly forceful enough to deter her completely, but maybe that was his intention. He hadn't quite decided yet._ _

__“You say things like that, I end up leaning towards one of them,” Strongarm warned, and Prowl was in his audio before Sideswipe could guess which one and push her helm closer to tell him._ _

___“Strongarm, come in. I lost the second suspect in Tarn, I can't pursue outside of jurisdiction.”_ _ _

__“Are the city officers on it?” he asked, only to get a scoff in reply._ _

___“Are you kidding? Places like Tarn, the law is as useless as rust. She won't stay in there for long if she's got any sense, but for now we can't touch her. Get the other one to the station, I'll meet you there.”_ Prowl’s frustration bled through the line, but Sideswipe was all glee and completely forgotten allure. She might have clapped her hands if they weren't tied, so for now she settled for squirming on the bench and cheering her sister on under her vents._ _

__“Good news, then,” Strongarm said while Sideswipe barely suppressed engine purrs._ _

__“Well, obviously not for you,” she pointed out, but it didn't diminish her joy at all._ _

__Strongarm wasn't even thinking of the potential lecture waiting for him and Prowl. “Is she gonna be okay in Tarn?” he asked._ _

__“She knows the way home, and to keep driving until she clears the slums. It's just a long shortcut, really,” Sideswipe said, though in a nanoklick her grin was gone as something flickered across her optics. “You'll keep hunting her though, won't you?” she asked._ _

__Strongarm toyed with the idea of lying, but dismissed it almost immediately. He had to sigh before settling on an answer. “Long story short, it depends on whether the warehouse you lifted from wants to press charges. I doubt they will though. I mean, it's not like you stole a whole crate of parts or something.”_ _

__“I was tempted, but they're heavier than they look,” Sideswipe quipped, sending herself off in another fit of laughter that Strongarm struggled not to join in with. He at least waited until she recovered before resetting back to default hard-aft-officer mode._ _

__“Alright, enough chit chat. I can either tow you to the station, or drive behind and escort you. Your choice.”_ _

__Sideswipe actually contemplated it, or seemed to for a few nanoklicks. “Hm, you staring at my aft the whole way there or me staring at yours? Tough decision.”_ _

__“I’ll make it for you if you won't, smart aft,” Strongarm muttered, but his smile ruined the effect of annoyance he was trying to give off. Sideswipe was at least considerate enough to play along._ _

__“Then I'll drive myself, thank you very much.” Her T Cog whirred, servos struggling to snap together with the cuffs but managing to shift to the doors of her alt mode. Strongarm did the same, putting his lights on as he drove behind her with headlamps shining all attention on her rear bumper._ _

__Surprisingly, she didn’t mention it. She was only concerned with one thing. “You still haven't given me an answer,” she crackled over her radio._ _

__“About what?” Strongarm asked._ _

__“About our date.”_ _

__Only now did it click with Strongarm, that she was really serious about it. Not as a get-out-of-jail-free card or a lazy quick-frag bribe. And he was struggling with the thought that he wanted to see her again, outside of the rigid framework of police protocol or the firm roles of captor and captive. He wanted a date with a criminal, a beautiful femme who just so happened to think little of the law he was trained in every facet in._ _

__An entirely different kind of difficult situation for him._ _

__“...I’ll make a deal with you,” he finally said after a few moments of nothing but awkward engine revs. “I’ll take you on one… if you're a good girl from now on.”_ _

__He could almost hear the disappointment growling under her hood. “Where's the fun in that?” she whined, though the fact he was even considering it seemed to make her vocaliser tone down._ _

__“Only way for you to find out is to try it,” Strongarm said, an octave or two lower than what he usually put out. Not the most persuasive of arguments, but he made it work beautifully._ _

__“... I guess we have a date, then,” Sideswipe said lightly, almost as if she didn't believe it herself. She had to roll forwards when Strongarm did, finally on their way, though she still kept within range to hear his own hidden mutter;_ _

__“...And I'm looking forward to it.”_ _


End file.
